NEW: 2018-19​K-8 Science Unit Rotation & Ordering Information

The online form for ordering science kits is now active. Please go to this link to order your kits and to this link to order K8 animals for the 2018-2019 school year as soon as possible. The first rollout of units for the fall will begin in early August -- order now so that you will be queued up early!! The unit rotations, schools, and some of the unit shifts are on this document.

Teacher teams have been hard at work looking for ways to better align our materials to the new 2016 MA Science and Technology/Engineering Framework. Changes will be rolling out over the next few years, and if you saw the Transition Plan last year, you might notice that we are on target with some grades, but not others. Our budget is limiting some of the work, but it is only one reason; the lack of successful research-based, aligned materials is another.

Middle grades are pretty much the same right now. We have some work groups this summer and we hope we can do more for you by September. We will make adjustments to the orders as needed. We are piloting OpenSciEd at middle grades in the hopes of big shifts for next year. BPS has been selected to be part of a national pilot that is developing and testing out new open source units for grades 6, 7 and 8. We are still looking for good materials that align well with the MA framework and meet the needs of our students. We hope that these materials in development will turn out to be better than what we have seen out there. In the meantime, we are recommending that you continue to use the units that we have as much of the content of the 2016 standards is addressed in the units, even though the content of some standards have moved to different grades. We are working under tight budget constraints and we hope that the OpenSciEd materials show themselves to be worth the wait!

Watch your inbox for the BPS Science Newsletter later in August. If you don’t receive it – sign up here!

As you can see from the order form, there are additional changes for this upcoming year! You might notice some shifts in the units… we will provide additional guidance as we approach the new year. We are busy revising and will provide additional guidance as soon as we can finish them up with teachers this summer!As you order you will note:

Grade 3 will teach a revised Motion and Design with Magnets unit

Grade 4 will implement a new unit from Smithsonian: Engineering Energy: How can we provide energy to people’s homes?

Grade 5 Measuring Time and Ecosystems -- we hope to have some revisions ready by August.

Be sure to check out the BPS Science Website as we get closer to the start of the school year for new resources and information for the 2018-19 school year!